At least four students were charged with offenses early Sunday morning during an outdoor St. Patrick’s Day party at High Point University that got out of hand and prompted 15 city police officers to respond to campus.

About 200 to 400 people were gathered outside at the Greek Village when High Point Police Department officers were called at 12:30 a.m. to assist HPU security staff in quelling the crowd, said police Lt. W.M. Heaviland.

“The crowd just got out of hand. There were several large gathering areas, and it was packed,” Heaviland said Sunday night.

Four students, and perhaps as many as six, were arrested and charged with offenses, the lieutenant said. Once the paperwork is finalized, the charges could include intoxicated and disruptive behavior in public, disorderly conduct and failure to disperse under order from a law enforcement officer.

Alcoholic beverages could have been a contributing factor to the altercation, Heaviland said. High Point police officers spent 45 minutes at the campus restoring order.

The lieutenant said that it’s not atypical for the High Point Police Department to respond to gatherings of 200 to 400 people where problems develop.

“It’s just not usually on the university campus,” Heaviland said. “Once the disturbance was quelled, and got dispersed, it really wasn’t that much of a big deal.”

An HPU official told The High Point Enterprise that university authorities “cooperated with the police, as we always do.” Roger Clodfelter, vice president for communications, acknowledged an incident occurred and said that no one was injured.